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For a change of scene we opted for a standard issue Toyota Pickup and headed through the traffic out of town. The thinking was that the bigger the vehicle, the more likely we were to have right of way – it seemed to work. First stop the natural hot springs and geysers of San Thaempang.

Whilst Mission Beach is pretty, unless you jump out of a plane, dive the reef or go white water rafting, your only option is to do very little. This is only fun for a limited amount of time, so it was not long before we hired a car, got up early and drove around some of the sights.

We decided to drive up from Whanganui to Mount Taranaki in one go with brief stops; it was the right thing to do as the landscape in comparison to the south island is pretty unremarkable. On the map, the volcano that is Taranaki looks immense, but no matter how far we were getting through the dairy laden landscape (why is cheese so expensive here?), the volcano would never come into sight – the low cloud shrouding the mountain.

For a full day, we headed for the hills to the Roman town of Lappa. A tourist honey pot with some down to earth genuine sides to it too. The “tourist train” was a bit too much for us, but the suave dutch guide that turned up unexpectedly by the mosaics seemed to keep the ladies interested.